Indore: Heading into the third Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Holkar Stadium in Indore 0-2 down, Australia dominated the hosts in the fixture and beat India by 9 wickets to make the scoreline of the series 2-1 with still one match to go. Despite losing the toss, the touring party first bowled India out for 109 before taking an 88-run first innings lead as they posted 197. In the second innings, even though the home team surpassed their tally of runs of the first innings, they only managed to score 163, setting a target of a paltry 76 runs for the Kangaroos.
On Day 3 morning, veteran India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin struck in the first over to ignite hopes of an unlikely result as he had dismissed the opposition's best batter of the first innings Usman Khawaja for a duck but Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne ensured no further damage was done as Australia got to their target in the first session of the day itself. Head took the attacking route and remained unbeaten on 49 off 53 while Labuschagne scored 28 off 58, also hitting the win run.
The win has also helped the Aussies seal a place for themselves in the WTC final.
Matthew Kuhnemann was the star of the Australian bowling attack on the first day of the Test match as he returned with figures of 5 for 16 with Lyon also scalping 3 wickets. But the off-spinner Lyon came back with a 8-wicket haul to finish with 11 wickets in the match and was adjudged the Player of the Match. For India, Cheteshwar Pujara's 59 in the second inning was the best score by an India batter in both innings combined but none of the other batters really stepped up. Other than Pujara, Shreyas Iyer also looked good for his knock of 26 but got out to a pacer on a wicket where other batters struggled against the pacers.
The partnership between Labuschagne (31) and Khawaja (60) in the first innings worth 96 runs in the first innings was perhaps the one which completely tilted the balance of the match in favour of the Aussies. The stand remained the biggest one of the entire match as the duo looked at ease against the Indian attack before Jadeja getting rid of both of them.